The slightly less than artful use of Profanity.

The use of expletives in our vocabulary can be seen in two ways, harmful and entertaining.

Admittedly, there really isn't anything helpful in our speech using profane verbage. It does relieve stress, kind of like punching a wall. But, just like punching the wall, it really isn't a healthy release, it's more of a controlled loss of temper. Using it casually for dramatic effect envokes shock in your listeners and has the tendencies to put someone in a debate off-balance. Problem is, if your opponent is actually someone with intellect and not some curb-sitter then you just basically pulled down your own pants and have shown a severe lack of intelligence. One of the basic rules in debate is the frst to breach etiquette has also lost momentum in their side of the argument and is now unconciously trying to divert attention away from it.

But, these general rules only apply when your opponent KNOWS who it is that they are facing. The anonymity of the internet has given amatuer vulgarians free-reign to ply their reckless trade amongst the unknowing masses.

A lot of the times when we experience this it's in a group of people we know, exercised in a carefree bonding. Good natured ribbing for those with the stomach for it.

Unfortunately, more often than not some chowder head exposes his oral genitallia for all of us to endure. For no particular reason some foul mouthed git will spew whatever noise he seems capable, whether it's a stream of profanity or some racial scourge. Why they are doing this is anyones guess. Either they are unloved at home, a pip-squeak with no ability to protect himself from bullying in the real world who turns to the internet for some bullying of their own, the emotionally unbalanced whose case manager has yet to drop off their meds, the legally insane who have just way too much unsupervised internet time, or some pre-adelescent (physically or emotionally) who has been raised by a complete douche-bag with no social grace or moral ethic. Anyway you slice it, they are horribly annoying.

Don't be confused. I LOVE my own ability to drop an oral turd with friends. Mercilessly nailing each other to see who crys first, great sport. Socially acceptable amongst friends when all participants know and accept the rules of conduct. So, I'm not against profanity per-se, I just think it should serve a purpose other than wiping your ass on society's handtowel.

It doesn't surprise me that these guys are abundant in the competetive gaming arenas of Halo, Rainbow 6, Battlefield 2, WoW, etc. Those areas afterall are about aggressive psuedo-masculane pursuits of shooting various things in the head and laughing about it. And yes, I find that enjoyable.

What I was sort of surprised to find out and a little disheartened to accept is that these kinds of people are even more prevelant in the Xbox Live Arcade community. Playing games such as Uno. UNO for cripes sake! Why would you run smack much less a stream of nearly inconprehensible swear words while playing Uno? Even playing with friends that amount of verbally assaultive conduct would be considered lame. While I'm not surprised that these people exist considering the types of people I deal with, I was at least hoping that they would be too pre-occupied with the needless torture of small animals to be bothered with exposing themselves to unwary gamers on Video Chat playing a virtual card game.

I have a very patient almost neutral view of people running their mouths playing Halo. There, it should take a large number of complaints to generate a notice from the mods. But, in a game that a small child is expected to be playing or families may be trying to have some enjoyment, a confirmed complaint should result in the immediate banning of the IP address of the offending terminal and the person, not gamertag, but the person's information as well from Xbox Live. Where it possible, it should be so.

Before some knucklehead screams censorship, remember that the Constitution only guarantees the right to have the ability to speak your mind, it doesn't provide a blanket protection from the consequences of what you have chosen to say.